Cricket 1912

60 CRICKET : A WEEKLY RECORD OF THE GAME. A p r i l 20, 1912. D o the second-class counties really want promotion ? I fancy that it would be found, on enquiry, that most of them do not. Possibly Glamorgan— less probably Stafford­ shire. Norfolk ?— Berkshire ?— Durham ? Could any of these stand the strain of a minimum of 16 three-day matches ? Before they could afford to step up conditions would need altering. And there are so many people who regard the three-day condition as something sacred, not to be assailed. S u s s e x tabled a motion which has not, up to the time of writing, received the attention it deserved. X don’t mean that it was a good motion. To my mind, it was a radically bad one, striking at the very roots of Minor County cricket. There are, leaving out of account the second elevens and Carmarthenshire, the last-named having been obliged to drop out, eighteen second-class counties. The executives of all these carry on under considerable difficul­ ties, and give a very moderately appreciative public some good sporting cricket. I f the Sussex motion had been passed, any crack amateur belonging to one of the eighteen might signify his wish to play for Surrey, Yorkshire, Sussex, Middlesex, or any other first-class county, and leave his own side in the lurch. Probably few would do so, in any case. But the suggestion ought never to have been made, I think. North­ umberland v. Durham is as genuine a county match as K ent v. Sussex ; and nothing ought to be done to increase the indifference with which the public is apt to regard the Second Division encounters. On the contrary, the game of cricket generally would benefit from a more lively interest in these matches. The gulf between the two classes is not so wide as many people imagine. Cornwall would have little chance against Kent— though they beat Kent Second last year. Dorset- con Id not play Lancashire with any real hope of success. But if three or four of the weaker first-class counties were to engage in a regular competition with say Staffordshire, Glamorganshire, Norfolk, Berkshire, Hertfordshire and Durham, I should not care to lay long odds against one of the minor division as at present constituted coming out on top. K e n t wanted cricket balls given out to the umpires with the makers’ seals unbroken. The correct answer to this is said to be : “ There ain’t none.” Otherwise, and less colloquially, that not all, if any makers, seal the balls they send out. N ow for this matter of a “ British Colony, Dependency or State.” A t present it is in a bad tangle. And the question is not a purely academic one, by any means. It is quite possible, though perhaps scarcely probable, that Frank Tarrant will be asked to play for Australia in the test matches of this season. The idea—both in his case and Philip Le Couteur’s, though the Oxonian is not affected by the ruling—has been mooted down under. V i c t o r i a is a British Colony, Dependency or State— vide Tarrant’s case in 1907-8. Quite r ig h t! But is Aus­ tralia ? Is South Africa ? Llewellyn was said to be under the operation of the rule when he went to Australia with the South African Team. A u s t r a l i a and South Africa are both great self- governing communities. Any man qualified by birth to represent either should surely be allowed to do so without prejudice to any English qualification he may possess. T h e whole business is badly tangled up. Albert Relf, Fred Pearson, and George Thompson have all repre­ sented Auckland in inter-provincial matches in New Zealand. It is held that this does not affect their status— apparently on the ground that the New Zealand provinces as governmental entities were abolished in 1876. But they have continued to be recognised in the world of sport, and Auckland v. Canterbury is as genuine a representative match as Surrey v. Notts., or New South Wales v. Victoria, though in the eyes of most people less important. Is a man disqualified for county cricket b y playing for Natal v. Transvaal in a Currie Cup match in South Africa ? And if so, is a man disqualified who plays for the Border v. Western Province in the same tournament ? Of course, you may say. But the matter is not so simple, as a reference to the article about Gerald Hartigan in this issue may serve to show. For the last-named centres are not states or colonies at a ll; both are parts of the Cape Province (Cape Colony no longer, as a good friend there has warned me). W . T. G r e s w f . lt , will be playing for Somerset this season. If he had represented Ceylon against Madras, say, while in the island would he have the right to do this ? Does playing for Straits Settlements v. Hong K ong entail disqualification under the rule ? May a man play for Barbados v. Trinidad, for Manitoba v. Saskatchewan, for Vanua Levu v. Viti Ixsvu, for Bombay Presidency v. Parsis, for Bermuda v. Philadelphia, and still retain his county qualification ? What may a man do, and what may he not do, and where is the line to be drawn ? T h e r e has been a controversy in the Sportsman as to England’s first wicket pair. My opinion has not been asked, but I give it for what it is worth. It is— leave it to England’s captain ! Two errors which call for correction crept into tho March issue. In the paragraph dealing with a case of hitting the ball twice in the West Indies, the Editor was made to say “ the attempt to keep the ball out of his wicket was as part of ” the stroke, instead of “ was no part of it.” This was Mr. Printer ; but the Editor saw the proof, and should have noticed the error. For the state­ ment on page 50 that Mr. Coulson retired from the secre­ taryship of the Durham C.C.— a post Mr. Coulson never held— the original culprit in the other case was in no way to blame ; and the man who accepts blame cannot under­ stand how the slip came a b ou t; he was as well aware as anyone in the county itself that Mr. A. Beresford Horsley has been Hon. Sec. and Mr. T. A. B ulmer Sec. of the Durham C.C. for some years past. W i l f r e d R h o d e s has been one of the central figures in both the first and last wicket record partnerships in England v. Australia matches— 130 for the tenth with R. E. Foster at Sydney in December, 1903 ; 323 for the first with John Hobbs at Melbourne during the recent tour. This is the kind of record likely to stand. But Wilfred was pretty hot stuff for No. 11 even in 1903. O n l y one batsman has ever made 10,000 runs in first-class cricket in Australia alone. Clem Hill reached that total during the 1911-2 season. He played his first match, v. Western Australia, in 1892-3, while still a school­ boy, though most statisticians choose to regard him as not having made a start till two seasons later. His total to date (in Australia only) is 10,194. Trumper has aggre­ gated 7,389, Syd Gregory 7,886, Noble 7,229, Armstrong 6,162, and George Giffen 5,770. N o one else reaches five thousand. Among other totals are : Iredale 4,292, Darling 4,074 ; McAlister, Lyons, Donnan, Duff, Laver, Bruce, Harry Trott, Alec Banner- man, Bardsley, and Ransford between 3,000 and 4,000. Hill has a long lead, it will be seen. T h e North of Scotland Cricket League is very anxious to induce the Australian and South African teams— either, or preferably both— to visit Inverness. There are diffi­ culties in the way, of course. The only vacant date on the Australian card is August 8th, and that could only be filled provisionally, on account of the test match at Nottingham, which may have to be played to a finish. The one vacant date for South Africa is July 11th, and that comes between two tests. If only the Middlesex match had been allotted that date— but it would have clashed with Gentlemen v. Players at the Oval— the Afrikanders could have gone north from Edinburgh after the match with Scotland there. There is just a possibility that one colonial team, or both, will consent to go up after